Overview

Evangelical Press Study Commentary Upgrade brings you the best in biblical scholarship from some noted scholars. This series is aimed at the minister, theologian, layman, and serious student alike. Though comprehensive in coverage, the volumes are practical and straightforward. Each author presents a careful analysis of the biblical text to grow your understanding of Scripture, and delivers simple applications to challenge that growth.

In the Logos editions, these volumes are enhanced by amazing functionality. Scripture citations link directly to English translations, and important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Key Features

Offers in-depth examination of books in the Bible

Provides practical application for Christians today

Presents the work of noted Bible scholars

Praise for the Print Edition

The EP Study Commentary series fills a needed gap in contemporary biblical commentary. The volumes in this series evidence and model careful biblical exposition and biblically grounded application in service of the church. They do so in such a way as to be able to profit pastors, teachers, and readers without specialized theological training alike.

Ecclesiastes

The distinctive approach of this commentary is that it argues for Solomonic authorship combined with a negative, under-the-sun approach to the message of the book. These two ideas are related to each other because the book reflects the struggles of Solomon during the period of his life when his heart was turned away from the Lord (1 Kings 11:9). The purpose of the book is to warn against speculative wisdom that no longer operates from the right foundation of the fear of the Lord. The struggles of Solomon are laid out as a warning to all that even someone as wise as Solomon can operate on the wrong basis. Of course, the answer to the struggle comes back at the end of the book.

Richard P. Belcher Jr. is John D. and Frances M. Gwin Professor of Old Testament and academic dean at Reformed Theological Seminary in Charlotte, North Carolina. He’s an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church of America and spent 10 years pastoring a nondenominational church in Rochester, New York. He has an MDiv from Covenant Seminary, an STM from Concordia Theological Seminary, and a PhD from Westminster Theological Seminary.

1 Kings

1 Kings recounts what happens to David’s kingdom following his death, dealing with why Judah came into the sorry state that led, eventually, to exile. Is there hope in the midst of God’s judgment on his people? John Davies shows the faithfulness of God, despite the people’s unfaithfulness, as a theme that runs throughout the book of Kings. God’s power and grace are shown to his covenant people.

The reader who comes to 1 Kings with the tumultuous events of 2 Samuel in mind will be expecting a resolution to them, particularly the narrative concerning the succession (2 Samuel 9–20) and there is considerable literary and theological interaction between the two books.

The division of Kings into two books is a later development, and we must regard the story of 1 Kings as leading into the traumatic Judean exile to Babylon with which 2 Kings concludes. The book of Kings, therefore, finalized after the beginning of the exile (though evidently making use of earlier sources), wrestles with the question of how Judah (all that is left of Israel) came to this sorry state, with its glorious temple in ruins and its citizens once more subject to a foreign king. This is no more than the people and their kings deserve, according to the theology outlined in the Pentateuch, particularly the book of Deuteronomy.

John Davies is principal emeritus of the Presbyterian Theological Center in Sydney. He holds an MDiv from Westminster Theological Seminary, and a PhD in Semitic Studies from the University of Sydney.

More significantly, as the author of this excellent commentary indicates, Ezra and Nehemiah focus on the people of God, the house of God and the ambivalent attitude of the Jews toward their Persian masters, teaching many lessons for today’s church and pointing to the temple-city of the new Jerusalem. This is a masterpiece of scholarly yet spiritually beneficial comment.

—Philip Eveson, former principal and lecturer in Old Testament exegesis and theology, London Theological Seminary

Gregory Goswell is the academic dean and lecturer in biblical studies (Hebrew and Old Testament) at Christ College, The Presbyterian Theological Center in Sydney, Australia. He coedited with Allan Harman the book Covenant and Kingdom: A Collection of Old Testament Essays by William J. Dumbrell and he is the author of numerous peer-reviewed journal articles in both Old Testament and New Testament studies.

Isaiah, vol. 2: Chapters 40-66

This section contains some of the most sublime passages to be found in Old Testament prophecy. It culminates in the vision that Isaiah has of the Servant and its implications for the people of God. John MacKay shows how these things were relevant to Isaiah’s contemporaries, but also how they apply to our own.

There were no investigative journalists in the ancient world to bring to the attention of the public matters which the rich and powerful wished to keep hidden. But to a certain extent their role was fulfilled in ancient Israel by the prophets of Yahweh, amongst whom was numbered Isaiah. He exposed the follies of the rich, oppression in society, commented on the inadequacies of foreign alliances, and resolutely confronted wayward kings.

The role of a prophet, however, differed in many key respects from that of a journalist. For one thing, the prophet was called and commissioned by God for the role that he had to play. A true prophet did not opt for this as a career: it was divinely assigned to him.

John L. MacKay is a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and professor of Old Testament in the Free Church College, Edinburgh.